On a given campus, approximately 30% of college students can be classified as bereaved and experiencing grief effects (Varga & Varga, 2019). The Holistic Impact of Bereavement framework (Balk, 2011) illustrates the specific grief effects college students may experience, including those related to the physical, cognitive, behavioral,…

Mattering is the subjective perception that others are aware of us, care about us, and depend on us at the interpersonal (e.g., friends) and societal levels (e.g., workplace, school). Interpersonal and university mattering explain important variances in college students' well-being and academic performance; therefore, shorter, more tailored…

Hope is a defining characteristic of well-being, and research points to the positive contribution of hope to life adjustment (Snyder, Lehman, Kluck, & Monssan, 2006). Harris developed an initial version of an individual-differences measure of hope, the Trait Hope Scale (THS). Snyder, Harris, and colleagues (1991) further developed the THS by…

Several instruments exist to measure college adjustment: the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ; Baker & Siryk, 1989), the College Adjustment Rating Scale (Zitzow, 1984), and the College Adjustment Scales (Anton & Reed, 1991). Of these, the SACQ is the most widely used and takes a multifaceted approach to measuring college…

In this research brief, a team of four researchers report their observations on the changing role of university housing complexes and their evolution into learning communities designed to foster students' learning, development, and overall well-being. The observation also revealed that the role of the resident assistant (RA) had evolved in a…

Community service is deeply rooted in American culture. There have been repeated calls for the necessity of evaluating these programs, especially for service-learning. The purpose of this research was to validate an easy-to-use scale that measures 10 components of students' attitudes toward community service. The sample was drawn from two…

This project concerned the creation of an inventory for college students of treatment fears and obstacles to seeking mental health services. Unlike previous research, undergraduate participants generated a pool of items to measure fears of and obstacles to seeking services. Subsequent rational and statistical refinement resulted in a 29-item scale…

Transitioning away from the comforts of home to the independent nature of the college environment can be stressful for students and thus is and has been a major focus of student affairs personnel. Perceived loneliness in college student populations has been found to be related to myriad mental health constructs. Thus, much attention has been given…

This project examined the reliability and validity of a newly developed measure of college students' receptiveness to alcohol related information and advice. Participants were 116 college students who reported having consumed alcohol at some point in their lifetime. Participants completed a measure of receptiveness to alcohol-related…

Using Renn's (2000, 2004) ecology of college student development model as a theoretical framework, I report and discuss the findings of my study involving 6 female college students who identify as multiracial/biracial-bisexual/pansexual. I describe how these findings validate Renn's model, specifically discussing how the campus environment…

We investigated the relationship between parent support and peer support as predictors of depression and self-esteem in college students. Several competing models of parental and peer influence were compared including a mediational model in which peer support was hypothesized to mediate the effects of parental support on adjustment. The results…

The prevalence of conceptually valid mentoring relationships in higher education is currently unknown due to a lack of a valid conceptualization within the literature. This article examines the construct validity of College Student Mentoring Scale (CSMS) with an eye toward identifying developmental support functions that should be provided to…

A survey of 2,520 college students was conducted to test relationships between academic success and college student motivational orientation, conceptualized from a self-determination theory (SDT) perspective, while also considering the moderating effects of background characteristics such as gender, socioeconomic status, race/ ethnicity, and…

Used survey data from Cooperative Institutional Research Program to develop empirical typology of college students. Seven student types were identified: Scholar, Social Activist, Artist, Hedonist, Leader, Status Striver, and Uncommitted Student. Results of validity analyses suggest that each of seven types possesses construct and predictive…

Presents initial data from 725 college and university students on the construct validity of the Learning Environmental Preferences (LEP) instrument. Findings suggest that the LEP accurately measures the cognitive portion of the Perry scheme of intellectual development. (Author/TE)